All I Want For Christmas [Luke Solo]

It was dinner soon, probably, but Luke wasn’t really hungry. That was good sign something was wrong, but he already knew that.

Luke hadn’t gone home last Christmas, and it hadn’t happened this year, either. It was Christmas Eve, and he was sat on his bed with a box. The box was new, though; last year, he’d gotten two letters from his family, instead. That should have made him feel better. The problem was, Ethan had clearly written one—his handwriting was pretty rough—and his parents had just signed it, and not written anything themselves.

On the plus side, from what his brother had said, things were going okay for him, and he named a couple of Luke’s friends as wishing him well, which was nice. Ella, his grandma, had sent her own, with an embarrassingly big check and some words of encouragement. It was better than he’d worried, but he couldn’t help but be disappointed anyway. He’d hoped to hear from more people; at the very least, Mom and Dad, right? Not to mention his aunt Natalie and uncle Harry, who’d always been close with Mom and him and Ethan. And even his other family hadn’t…

Now Luke had gotten a box He didn’t know if he wanted to open it, which was silly, but he also felt really nervous about it? It wasn’t just anticipation, either. He wasn’t sure what to expect, or something, but what kind of bad thing would it possibly be? He couldn’t just sit here staring out the window forever.

He just had to bite the bullet, he guessed. His claw easily tore the mess of duct tape over the cardboard lid. Luke took a look at what was inside. The first thing that caught his eye was the two envelopes on top of another, smaller box. Whatever was in that one could wait.

The top envelope was first; Luke was very careful opening it without ripping up whatever was inside. There was a check, first, that he set aside without even looking at it. It was a letter, of course, on white printer paper in big curly font. Luke's lips pulled back like a grimace—though for him this an unconscious motion closer to biting one's lip, which he obviously could not do—because he immediately recognized the font Grandma always used even though Mom always complained it was hard to read.

"To my oldest grandson,

It's been too long since we heard from you. Your brother helped me set up an email account, egwallace@gmail.com, so you should let me know how you've been down there! I want to hear about all your heroics—I heard you were in California to help with the fire evacuation, but they didn't show any pictures of you!

I hope you're doing well, but I don't know if I need to hope. I'm sure you've got lots of friends and I bet the big city suits you just fine. I'd say don't get into trouble, but that's a bit silly isn't it? Get into whatever trouble you need to, just be careful. If whatever you're doing would give me a heart attack if I saw, think twice, for my sake!

With love and all the cheering I can manage,

Grandma"

Luke sniffled a little. He'd definitely set up the email, of course, but just hearing her made him feel so much better. Well, 'hearing', but it was like he could hear her voice there. He took a quick look at the check—it was not as sizable as last time, but he could hardly complain, and it was still pretty impressive. Grandma had always been good with money, so now that she was retired, she'd been wont to spend on her daughter and grandkids.

Now, for the other one. Luke was a little less antsy now, but he didn't know if this was going to be like last year. Inside was...not a letter. Just an index card, with a line of writing on it. It took a moment for Luke to recognize the number as a phone number, though it wasn't one he recognized.

He dialed it. Texting was for less special days. Christmas, man! Plus he had a little trouble with touch screens, and setting the phone on speaker suited his ears just fine.

"Hello?" Luke knew Ethan's voice instantly, even though his brother was now 14. "Luke?"

"Yeah! Yeah, it's me. Hey!" Luke was practically vibrating in place, bouncing his legs and making his bed shake. "How are you? Merry Christmas!"

"Yeah, you too! I got a cell phone for Christmas and Mom and Dad gave it to me early so I could call you. How is it in New York?"

Luke's heart jumped a little. "It's fine, it's less snowy, but it's so crowded you wouldn't believe it. Uh..." He stared out the window, unconsciously. "Are Mom and Dad there? Can I..."

"Yeah, there are. Hold on, lemme put it on speaker." there was a sound of fumbling before the quiet buzz of background noises came through. Luke heard the bed suddenly groan from the sudden extra movement, and managed to hold still.

"Hi, sweetie! Merry Christmas!" That was Mom. He hadn't heard from her in almost two years. "Merry Christmas, Luke." And that was Dad.

"Hey, hi." Luke sounded a little choked up. There was a brief instinct to demand an explanation for the silence, but he supressed it. Don't ruin the moment. "I...I'm happy to hear you. Congrats on the phone, Ethan."

"Thanks!"

"Well..." Luke had never heard him mom sound so unsure. "We're sorry it's been so long. We...didn't have our priorities straight, but...We love you more than anything."

He was definitely tearing up a little. "It's okay. I getcha. I'm doing okay. It's been pretty crazy here, but it's going good. How are you all?"

-----

A lot of time passed. Maybe an hour or so. They talked and took turns, explaining how things were on either side. Ethan was in 8th grade and still playing soccer, and apparently some of his teachers had asked about Luke, and had remembered him fondly. Mom was working at the high school now teaching English, which was terrifying to Ethan, which made Luke laugh. Luke told them about the city, and his friends, how he'd helped the seniors on their prank (Mom was indignant and everyone laughed at that).

Grandma wasn't at the house at the moment—the family always ate dinner early on Christmas Eve and she'd gone home after. But she was doing well, and wished him well. Luke got the sense they weren't so sure how to talk about the whole X-Man heroism thing, so he left some of that out. They'd get used to it, he thought.

Before Luke hung up, he finally opened the smaller box, and his gasp of surprise was completely genuine. It was a Switch repackaged, presumably to keep the surprise, and it already had Smash Ultimate, which he'd been hoping to pick eventually. He could never have expected something like that.

After plenty of goodbyes and promises to keep in touch more and assurances of love, they hung up. Luke set the console on his desk, plugged his phone into the charger, and laid back on the bed. He only basked in the good feelings for a few minutes though. After that, his stomach strted growling at him, and he noticed it was now well past normal dinner. He got up and, with one more look at his phone on the desk, went out of his dorm to go to the kitchen.